Al-Qaeda Coming Back from the Cold, Iran and the Sunni Crescent, Jews in Egypt

Iran and the Bomb:
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported that Israel has received permission from three Arab states on the Persian Gulf to use their airspace in case she decides to bomb Iran. Qatar, UAE, and Oman were mentioned. The secretary general of the Arab League denied the charges.
Question: why single out these three Gulf states that do not have common borders with Israel? Any flight from Israel to the Gulf would have to cross the mother of all Arab airspaces, over Saudi Arabia.

Seymour M. Hersh reports in The New Yorker that the administration is planning to attack Iran- that it is folllowing a two-pronged strategy: it is building a case and trying to provoke the Iranian regime. He claims that a case is being made through revelations of Iranian arms shipments to the Shi'a militias. These weapons were reported by officials to have killed as many as 170 American troops in Iraq. So, then, tell us: whose weapons killed the rest, the other 2,900 brave young American men and women? And, at least as important: whose money has been funding the Salafi Jihadist groups responsible for those other 2900 killings and many more thousands of maimings?

The Al-Qaeda Embrace:
There is strong evidnce, only some of it anecdotal, of a mutant al-Qaeda that might fit for the time being with the goals of a mutating Arab strategy. Arab strategy noawadays means Saudi strategy. Al-Qaeda's resurgence, now clearly gathering steam, goes beyond its bases in al-Anbar province of Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The dormant war in Algeria seems to be reviving, with a new twist that points to new Saudi influence: there is much talk about the Shi'as and Shi'ism among Algeria's Salafis these days, and the Saudi-owned media like Alarabiya TV and Asharq Alawsat daily have echoed these grumblings. This in a country that has hardly any Shi'as and hardly knows anything, or cares, about that sect. Another area of new resurgence of al-Qaeda is peaceful, secular Morocco, where Jihadist activity has been picking up in recent months. This could be devastating for the economy of Morocco, which depends heavily on tourism.

A recent and bizzare twist involves some troubles in Yemen, where the Saudi-owned media now claim that a Zaidi (Shi'as) revolt is destabilising the country- which would mean the necessity of making peace with that country's extensive al-Qaeda network (remember the USS Cole?). One Saudi media outlet even reported that Iraqi and Iranian agents were uncovered as part of a plot to establish, get this : "a Persian state" in Yemen. Must be the desire to tap all that chewable green qat.
But it gets even more bizzare: the same Saudi media reported recently that some Islamic shaikhs in the Comorro Islands, off Eastern Africa, have publicly condemned, presumably to the very same Saudi media, attempts to spread Shi'ism in that country. Even in Lebanon, the normally secular and cosmopolitan Sunnis are being targeted. New, shadowy Salafi/Wahhabi groups are sprouting faster than the petro-dollars and the Hariri billions can finance them. Which means that, like in Iraq, the most educated Sunnis, among others, will come under unbearable pressure. Which would mean that now both secular Sunnis and secular Shi'as who, along with the Maronite Christians, formed the backbone of Lebanese stabilty, will have to take sides or leave the country. Unless they are willing to Saudi-ize or Irani-ize.

Not only Seymour Hersh, but other evidence over the past few months point to a possible re-emergence of a tri-partite Saudi-Jihadist alliance, with the United States as the third, perhaps somewhat reluctant, partner. But will al-Qaeda be happy back in the Wahhabi bosom of its genesis? And for how long?

A meeting of foreign ministers of seven mainly Sunni Moslem states was held in Islamabad Sunday. The Arab League claimed that the meeting was to discuss the "Arab peace plan", and did not mean to exclude large Shi'a states, like Iran and Iraq. The meeting included such members of the Sunni Crescent as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, as well as al-Qaeda-hosting Pakistan and European-aspiring Turkey.

Retro in Egypt:
In Egypt, the secretay general of the Higher Council on Antiquity, is bringing charges against a private school in Cairo- because part of its curriculum material claims that Jews helped build the Pyramids, and that they were persecuted (shocking,this last assertion). I could have sworn that the Holy Quran also says that Jews were persecuted in Egypt, with the staff of Moses changing into a snake and all that, although it does not mention the pyramids. The man claims that the pyramids were completely built by Egyptians, Charlton Heston and Cecil B. de Mille notwithstanding, and that they considered it a "project of national pride", which is a new PC take on an old slavery issue.
Cheers
Mohammed